Youtube Music

Everyone’s heard Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” But you don’t get to see the first time it was played live in a Olympia dive bar … or at the Reading Festival … or performed by a full orchestra. Unless you visit YouTube.

YouTube has more music than any other streaming service. But despite a catalog full of deep cuts, official recordings and live versions, people don’t think of YouTube as a music authority. 

YouTube Music was ready to deploy their streaming app to take on the competition. We were ready to make noise and build credibility for the launch.

Why bet on the profile page? Because after rolling out standalone handles for @YouTubeMusic seven months before app go-live, we found that nearly 10x the number of followers were going to the brand’s profile page over individual posts. We planted our mic stand on that real estate with an immersive experience exploding with discovery.

To announce the YouTube Music app, we curated a 36-tile Instagram takeover showcasing modern music’s greatest moments and celebrating the interconnectivity of artists, from the Beatles, James Brown, and Missy Elliott to YouTube’s own stars like Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, and Shawn Mendes.

The art for each post was carefully linked to the next, creating a seamless, single-unit timeline. Each post was a video or carousel, offering a mixed-media deep dive into the artist. 

The experience echoes YouTube exploration: Fans could swipe, zoom and read, while being creatively steered to download the app. 

Our immersive channel content gave people the music feels, driving traffic, follower growth and app downloads, all while getting global media attention. 

10MM+ downloads of the app in first 90 days.

#1 on the overall charts of both app stores in new markets.

135 media outlets from 16 different countries covered the launch.

7.6% growth of Instagram channel on launch day.